A comment circulating online encapsulates the political developments in Bihar perfectly – “it took a global war for a regime change in Iran to effect one in Bihar.”

Nitish Kumar, the State’s longest serving chief minister, is going to the Rajya Sabha, vacating the post for National Democratic Alliance ally, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which finally gets to hold the top spot.

The relationship between the Janata Dal(U) and the BJP through the years — from the time when the JD(U) was Samata Party to now — has been full of twists and turns, with one constant factor: Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial face.

This constancy of the alliance’s face, since 2000, when the Samata Party got fewer seats than the BJP, but saw Mr. Kumar being projected as chief minister for a brief period of seven days in a short lived claim, to 2025, when, again, the BJP won more seats than the JD(U), was a product of the political field of Bihar but also the image and persona of Mr. Kumar.

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With exit of its ‘forever CM’ Nitish Kumar, it’s an end of an Era in Bihar

Nitish Kumar’s exit marks the end of an era in Bihar politics, shifting power dynamics towards a BJP-led future.